Word to the Wise
Tuesday, October 22, 2013 - Tuesday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 5:12, 15b, 17-19, 20b-21 and Luke 12:35-38]For if, by the transgression of the one, death came to reign through that one, how much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the gift of justification comet o reign in life through the one Jesus Christ.
The key to understanding the passage from St. Paul's Letter to the Romans in today's first scripture is to get your New Testament and read all of Chapter Five. The editors of the lectionary have left out some important things in their effort to convey the essence of the message! The "that one" is Adam! St. Paul sees Adam as representing all of humankind as an "archetype." He sees Christ as the "new Adam" who restores creation to its proper relationship with God. He sees death as the consequence of Adam's "transgression" [somehow Eve gets lost in this!], and Jesus' death and resurrection as the act that overcomes death and gives new life! Moses and the law simply added to the problem because Adam had only one commandment to obey, but Moses added 613!
This is "big picture" theology! St. Paul is describing a very large reality that encompasses God's entire plan of salvation. He is trying to place not only the Chosen People but all of humanity in that plan. St. Augustine would come along later and articulate Paul's vision as "original sin" which would be taken away by baptism. Whether or not St. Paul would agree with St. Augustine is another topic, but the consequences for Catholic sacramental theology up until the Second Vatican Council were enormous! It is only then that the church began to move away from an emphasis on Adam's sin, inherited almost as a kind of spiritual bad gene, to an emphasis on baptism as identifying us with Christ's life, death and resurrection. It is this latter meaning that moves us toward a Christian life and action that bears fruit in our love of God and neighbor. AMEN